What Went Right and Wrong!

By Paul Anthony

We are now approaching Halloween, in fact we are only a few days away now, so what is a better time to look at the big three horror icons remakes. For those who don’t know, we have reached ten years since the release of Rob Zombie Halloween film. At this point I was like wow it’s been ten years already, in this blog in honor of that we will look at what worked in that film and Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm and what didn’t work. We will start with Friday the 13th first and finish with Halloween last so let’s begin!

The previous decade was a roller coaster ride for Jason with release of Jason X which pretty much ruin him and made him into a joke, really Uber Jason get real. It did rebound with Freddy vs Jason which is the highest film in the Friday the 13th franchise, but they decided to reboot the franchise and six years later we got our next solo film. The film was supposed to be a true remake but instead become reimaging, they decided to do put four films into one, which was a smart idea, no need to have a franchise to go 8 or 9 movies deep with very little story. Showing Jason there witnessing his mother being killed made us give him just a little sympathy. Making him be quick and running was a homage to his debut in part two, which people forget about, and him wearing the bag then finding the mask was perfect. Now let’s add in the brother/sister storyline to give the film a story was much needed. Things that didn’t work pretty much the acting and writing and making the teens as dumb and horny as possible and I don’t understand making Jason so big which seems to be theme with horror remakes. We are now left with wonder what the next reboot will give us, if it will truly happen.

The following year in 2010, we saw another legend return and his name was Freddy, the first film not to feature Robert Englund which didn’t please fans at all, but having a new Freddy was needed, the film tone down the campy comedy and made the humor dark and dry which was much needed, after all it was supposed to be a nightmare not a dream. Outside of that it goes downhill, with the writing and acting and even changing the characters last names was just wrong. Then you got the use of CGI for Freddy instead using make up was a big letdown. Sure, the make up for Freddy was getting cheesy and truly so fake but still. At this point the franchise is on ice with no word of a sequel or a reboot.

Now let’s get to Michael shall we, 2002 we saw Halloween resurrection which just killed the franchise like Jason X did. Five short years later Rob Zombie stepped up and directed a film that brought Michael back to the spotlight. First giving us a little insight to his backstory helped us understand why he was the way he was and a look at his family though from the original his family was never that crazy which hurt the point he was trying to make about Michael upbringings. Rob has a style that is like no other and at times it can be a problem. Michael returning to get his mask made the mask that much more important and keeping it the same and creepy was a true plus on his part. A new view on Dr. Loomis was brighten having him be corrupted by the fame added a good twist onto the character. Now here was didn’t work, too much time on Michael back story, we don’t see the Michael we know until roughly an hour into the film which was too long not to feature him. Having Michael be a giant was big mistake, Michael was normal size and wasn’t that strong which truly made you afraid, this Michael however you just knew what he could do. Haddonfield being filled with crazy people truly made Michael seem like he was normal living in that town. Haddonfield was a nice little town, changing it just wasn’t right. This was Rob Zombie style, which made him famous, so you couldn’t expect any less. We are now waiting for the next Halloween film which is coming next year but this time John Carpenter returning and so is Jaimie lee Curtis, this film will be the part 3 that we never truly got, which makes us pumped for his return!